July 14, 2008 7:28 PM

Take Them Out to the All-Star Game

Posted by Jonathan Thrope

Mary Braza, chair of Foley & Lardner's sports practice, takes baseball very seriously. The longtime Milwaukee Brewers season ticket holder spent a lot of time online last Thursday--during conference calls--voting to land Brewers outfielder Corey Hart a final spot on the National League All-Star roster. The clicks apparently paid off, as Hart is headed to Tuesday's All-Star Game at New York's Yankee Stadium.

Braza and a group of nine Foley lawyers are heading to New York, too, with tickets in hand for Tuesday's game. The lawyers will be accompanied by clients and family in what has become an annual event for Foley & Lardner, a longtime outside counsel to Major League Baseball.

"It's a good opportunity for us to see clients again, and talk to them in a nice social setting," Braza says. "We usually set up some business meetings around the All-Star Game."

In recent years the game has been conveniently played in cities in which the firm has offices, including Milwaukee, San Fransisco, and Chicago. Foley has an office in New York, too, though Braza expects this year to be a bit different than games past. "It is a great year to be there, this last year in Yankee Stadium, and all the history that goes with that," she says. "Tickets are really tough [to get], the tightest I've ever seen."

Braza and her Foley colleagues are among what The Am Law Daily expects will be a sizable contingent of Am Law 200 lawyers at the game. We checked in with DLA Piper, given the firm's work on the MLB steroid investigation, but a spokesperson said the firm couldn't comment on issues regarding MLB. We did chat with two seasoned New York lawyers, both die-hard Yankee fans who plan to attend.

Twenty-four-year Yankee season ticket holder Martin Flumenbaum, a senior litigator at Paul Weiss, plans to attend the game with his son; they'll be seated in Flumenbaum's usual seats, right behind home plate. "I want the American League to win," Flumenbaum says optimistically, "so I can witness four World Series games instead of three."

Howard Ganz, cochair of Proskauer's labor and employment practice, has invited along his son-in-law, visiting from Denver, and a few clients. Ganz, who has handled some labor employment work for MLB, says the tickets were offered through the league, as they have been for past All-Star Games. "I'm looking forward to it," the Yankee fan says. "Except for this year's World Series, it will be the last major event at Yankee Stadium."

For those who couldn't score game tickets, there's no reason to feel left out. New York lawyers with offices facing Sixth Avenue can glimpse the All-Star Game Red Carpet Parade, scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday and featuring 110 past or present baseball stars riding along the law firm-heavy, red carpet-laden route in flatbed Chevy vehicles. They can even get a couple of franks from the vendors on the street, too.

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